Archive for the 'RSS' Category

RSS stands for Real Simple Syndicate. Syndication basically means distributing something (usually copyrighted work) to a large number of services which then publish, show, etc that work for you. When it comes to TV shows, newspaper articles, and pictures, it usually means money. RSS is just a type of electronic way to syndicate or feed your newest post to the world.

In the Blogosphere, Syndication means you get to syndicate your article for free to anyone who will listen. An RSS feed is what bloggers and internet news sites use to alert people that there is new content on their websites. Readers, like you, and I, have programs called feedreaders that are usually based online and can be accessed from any computer. When you log in all the blogs or newspapers feeds that you are subscribed to are downloaded, most of these are RSS but there is also Atom feeds and XML feeds that do pretty much the same thing.

If you look on the far right bar of this blog you’ll see some buttons labeled RSS, XML, add to google, etc. If you click on those buttons you can add this blogs feed to stay up to date with all the newest information for part time bloggers. If you don’t have a feed reader don’t worry just clikc on the button and you’ll be able to sign up for a feed reader without losing this blogs info.

For more information on RSS feeds and the history of feeds check out XML.com’s Feed Page.

Stats, Stats, Stats. The good thing about stats is that they allow you to track your users and better optimize your content and page layout for search, monetization, and readability. The bad thing about stats is that they give you just one more reason to not be writing content and to be procrastinating hoping your numbers will increase.

Procrastination aside though one set of statistics that allows you to promote your site, track your regular readers, and show off your readership is Feedburner. Feedburner is a service that tracks people who subscribe to your RSS or XML feed. Your feed is basically your online newspaper that is updated every time you write new content and sent to your subscribers. They can easily keep up to date with all of the blogs or news resources they read.

The great thing about Feedburner is that it tracks your readers for you. You simply follow their instructions to re-direct all your feed traffic through their site and software and they’ll track the users and report the statistics back to you. Feedburner keeps track of day to day readership as well as which syndication readers were used to grab your feed (Google Reader, Bloglines, etc).

The best thing about Feedburner (that I feel anyway) is they allow you to show-off your stats right on your site. You can show your visitors just how many regular readers you’ve had in the last 24 hours and hopefully impress them enough to grab your feed and join the list.

Check Feedburner out to add it to your blog statistics tools.